Pastor’s Corner — December 3rd, 2023
Advent, Confessions, and Dec 8 Holy Day of Obligation
This weekend we’re starting the Advent Season, which is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. We will not be doing a special preaching series as we’ve done in years past for the Advent Sundays. Advent is also a good time to make a good confession and we have plenty of penance services available. Those can be found on the homepage of our website.
Don’t forget that December 8th (the Immaculate Conception) is a Holy Day of Obligation next week. Please see the bulletin for more details.
Knights of Columbus Ornament Sale in McCann Hall after Masses
For a few weeks now, the Knights have been selling their beautiful Christmas ornament that features our new sanctuary renovation during coffee and donuts. They will be available in McCann Hall after the Sunday morning Masses this weekend if you’re considering buying one for this Christmas.
The German Bishops, the Synod in Rome and Thinking Clearly
Over the past couple of years, the Vatican, including the Pope himself, have expressed concerns about the German Synodal Way. (I’ve written about this here multiple times) On November 10th, Pope Francis wrote a prompt response letter to four women who resigned from the German Synodal Way because of their concerns. He expressed his concerns too. And last week it was reported that a letter written by Cardinal Parolin of the Vatican (dated October 23) to the German Bishops stating clearly that the Church’s teaching on women’s ordination and homosexual acts are not up for discussion. The letter has a lot more to it, but I think all of this is really good news.
However, I’m concerned that many Catholics will not appreciate this news because it will be drowned out by the pessimistic narrative of Catholic social media critics who seem to be in a constant state of fear and anger about what is going on in the Church. It almost goes without saying that sentiments such as these can spread like a virus to normal Catholics who are just trying to follow Jesus and love the Church. In fact, I’ve seen really good people who have fallen into pits of fear-based thinking and deception about endless controversies and in-fighting in the Church lose their peace and trust in Jesus in the process. Thinking that those who disagree with them are naïve, they don’t even suspect one bit that they’ve been tricked by the enemy.
Are there problems in the Church? Of course there are; there have always been. While some Catholics around the world, even some bishops, really are championing a kind of radical progressive change in Catholic doctrine about issues of morality, most of us are simply remaining faithful to what Scripture and the Church have always taught. We’re doing this not only because we know we don’t have the right to change our Master’s teaching, but also because we are joyfully striving to live out our calling to holiness and evangelization. But living our call is frankly made harder when Catholics who, reacting to the radical progressives, go too far and inadvertently (and ironically) undermine Catholic tradition in the name of being “traditional.” Given these twoextremes, it’s not easy being orthodox in the heart of the Church today.
I read a lot so I’m very well aware of what’s going on. But based on my reading, we have a clear choice of falling into fear or trusting in God with childlike faith. One leads to anxiety and the other to peace. Am I concerned about the Synod of Synodality in Rome 2024? Nope. Of course, I strongly disagree with the bad theology of some bishops and theologians and yes, I’m concerned about the “German Synodal Way.” But my heart is at peace about the Synod in Rome for several reasons:
1) No matter what the interim or final report says, there is no evidence that Pope Francis desires to make any changes to Church doctrine. (Even if he wanted to, he doesn’t have that authority).
2) I have a healthy distrust of people who are constantly negative, fearful, and tend to speak as if the sky is falling when it’s not. I find it helpful to listen to more measured and thoughtful voices.
3) I have absolute trust in the Spirit of Jesus who is guiding the Church. When we live as if the enemy can or will overcome the Church, we’ve already succumbed to the enemy.
For those who want to read on the Synod on Synodality, Word on Fire put out a really good seven-part series on it. Bishop Barron also recently wrote on his experience of the synod which I find excellent. Yes, we can strongly disagree with some synodal interventions and still have confidence in the Lord.
As you know, I tend to not address these kinds of issues often. Yes, they are important in some ways, but for the most part Catholic commentary can serve the enemy’s purpose to be a big distraction to who we are in Christ and his mission in our lives. I decided to write on this this week, not because I’m concerned about the Synod or the Pope, (I’m not) but because really good people are being misled and are struggling with fear when they don’t need to be. Here are three pieces of advice when navigating Catholic social media:
1) Be really cautious of who you read and watch on the internet, especially beware of people who say stuff like “Pope Francis is a heretic” or “Pope Francis is not the pope” or “the Novus Ordo Mass is bad or objectively inferior to the Traditional Latin Mass” or “Vatican II is bad” or “Pope Benedict was murdered.” None of this is true and people spreading this stuff are unwittingly causing serious division in the Church.
2) If you want to keep up with what’s going on in the Catholic world, stay with good journalism. Some of my favorite Catholic news and commentary sources are Pillar Catholic, Word on Fire, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, Catholic World Report, Crux, Catholic News Agency, Catholic Culture, and The Catholic Thing. There are other good ones out there, but I believe these are some of the most solid in English.
3) If you’re still finding yourself fearful or worried in such a way that you’ve lost your peace, please consider no longer reading the news, pray for the Church more and refocus your energy on becoming a saint and winning over those around you for Christ. After all, we believe Jesus is our King and we know we have no need to worry or even get lost in the inside baseball of intra-church theological debates. Our role is to prayerfully and trustingly keep our eyes on Jesus, live out our faith, and share it with others.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias